Luna Sandals Mono Gordo Review

MONO GORDO

(Fat Monkey)

For years I have been asking Scott (Head Design Monkey at Luna Sandals) to make a Recovery sandal.  To make a Mono as thick as possible.  Scott is pretty open minded dude. But somehow our ideas never matched up until now.

Cha-Ching
It's like having two Zero drop lightweight aircraft carriers strapped to me feet.  I received my first pair just before heading to Colorado this summer. 1,000 miles later here is my review.

I planned on wearing in them for the Leadville 100 so on the Tuesday before the races I wore them on some random 14er

Surprisingly there was still some ground feel but no sharpness from jagged rocks. 

The grip is minimal much less than the Leadville Gordo but plenty enough for Leadville.
Huh?

Unless you are "Sandal Geek" you my not know that there is another version of the Gordo called the Leadville Gordo. it's very stiff and rigid but with better grip. They are nice for hiking but I don't recommend them for running.
(Hows that for confusing?)

I was excited to see how these Fat Monkeys would preform over 100 mile race.

The race didn't go as planned  but that would lack adventure if it did.

I had some breathing issues during  do to smokey air but was still able to score a big buckle with a sub 24 hour finish.  Although my lungs felt like crap.  It was the fastest recovery time I had ever had from a 100 miler thanks in part to the  Mono Gordo sandals.  I was back running less than 30 hours after the race and  felt so spry I was able to  qualify for the Boston Marathon the following weekend.

I wore them again 2 weeks after Leadville at the Hideaway 100 In Winter Park CO.
This was a strange race.  I had miserable morning I got lost a couple times running extra miles.   I felt like I had boogie boards on my feet and I wanted to body surf.  It wasn't until about mile 60 that I found my happy place.

I ended up finishing the race in 3rd place plus I got in about 7 bonus miles.
Once again my feet felt great the next day and my recovery was almost instant.

The true test of these sandals and where they really shinned came in October
When I joined Barefoot Alex in the Champions Walk 4 Peace
running from Chicago to New York

Click Here to Donate

Over a three week period I put over 600 miles on My Mono Gordos.

Up one road

and down another

Day

After day

After day

They even took me to Christopher Mcdougall's house.

My feet felt great. and the sandals felt better and better as I sunk into them.
Can you guess which two are mine?
Is this really relevant?
Probably not

Conclusion:
Chances are you will probably lose one of your Mono Gordo sandals before you wear them out.  Why do you think you see only one sandal in this Picture.  Where the other one is I have no freaking clue

Probably stolen by pirates?
(the pirate needed it more than me)

These sandals are built to last and while I don't think they are perfect for everything.  I think the standard mono is better sandal for most people. The Mono Gordo Is great for people who run long distances on hard surfaces.  Perfect for the concrete jungle .

After 1,000 miles the Mono Gordo still has a ton of life left and felt like they were getting better.

Where will your Luna  Sandals take you?

Bonus pic :

staring Michelle Evans calves

That witch never would of let tht house fall on her if she had on some Luna Sandals. As for Dorthy if  she had Luna Sandals instead those ruby red slippers that  gave her such bad blisters she would have totally won the Yellow Brick Road Marathon.

Luna Sandals Origin Review

Luna Origins 

I have been running in Luna Sandals pretty much since their inception.  I have seen many different types of sandals come and go many of which were never sold to the public  I have probably raced more miles in Huaraches  than any other gringo.

I have spent most of the year running on roads first running across the entire country mostly in Luna Mono's and then most recently running from the Chicago Marathon to the New York Marathon 900 miles in 20 days wearing mostly Luna Gordo Mono's (review coming soon).

To date this year I have ran over 6,000 miles this year with over half of them in Luna's
Over the last month I finally got a chance to try out the Luna Origin and it has quickly become my favorite sandal.

Since the beginning Luna has wanted to a tire tread sandal.  At first they thought using recycled tire was the answer but after some research they found out that the process of grinding tires and then gluing back together turned out to be worse for the environment than making a totally new product.  (Bummer)

 Manuel Luna and I at the Huisuchi ball race December 2013

Luna's sandals

I can attest that tire does not inherently mean better. It means more durable and less ground feel in the case of the Tarahumara it usually means zero ground feel. The older generation and the more conservative runners tend to wear a very thick tire sole up to an inch thick.  For them a  mold-able sole like that found on the Luna Mono is less desirable for the rigors of everyday life in the canyons.

 I had a pair of tire sandals made for me the first year I went down to to the Copper Canyon back in 2011  by my friend Ignacio  aka
"Nacho"

Not all tire is equal and although the the tread is pretty awesome it is way too floppy and is about as useless to me as those sandals I saw on Shark Tank.  But you get what you get and you don't upset.  I still have them.

and

 I am thankful for the friendship it began with Nacho

Nacho Playing the the Violin 2014.

After years of waiting Luna finally made the perfect tire sandal.  Using an Upcycled Michelin Tire for tread and Vibram mid-sole they created both the most durable Luna ever and the most comfortable tire treaded sandal I have ever worn.

The tread has Natural curve upwards preventing the sandal from feeling floppy while still being very flexable

I recently took them with  me on trip to Urique and this is my initial impression

They are a little heavy, but still lighter that most most trail running shoes or chacos. I don't know if I will end up racing  in them or not. The more I wear them the more I am enjoying the added weight. If speed Is what you after I'd go with the Mono's but for training these are perfect.  When I put on my mono's now they feel weightless

The Origin are a great all purpose sandal. and has quickly become my go to everyday choice of foot wear.

Photo by Mikko Ijäs

If you are looking for a sandal that is built to last look no further.

If you want a second opinion here's what Barefoot Ted has to say

Luna Origins

 can be be purchased online or you if you can track me down I have a bunch of pairs to sell at cheaper than retail roving monkey price.

I will be running  in the following event before the year is over.

11/28-29

Red Rock 50  miler

Santa Barbara-ish

12/12-13

Brazos Bend 100 miler

Houston Texas

12-26

Operation Jack marathon

Dockweiler State Beach

Los Angeles

12/28-1/03

Across the Years
Phoenix AZ

Cheers!

The 3 most Overrated and Pretentious Beers

  

I write this this post out of boredom and frankly I don't care what the  you drink, you have the right to like whatever the hell you want.  It's okay if you like one of these beers.   You may even be a swell person even though I think  your taste in beer sucks.

If you offer me any of these there beer's I may say 

"yes" 

because if I say "no"people may stop offering me free beer and I don't want take that risk

 But

Please know that you are killing slowly. The taste of these beer fills me with same disgust as watching fox news or two girls sharing one cup.

I do not have a palate for Belgium, sour, cream, white or amber ales.

I am IPA drinker who also drinks plenty piss yellow American and Mexican pilsner and lagers.

I would rather drink warm flat Steel Reserve than any of these three beers.

So without further ado I give you

The 3 most Overrated and Pretentious  Beers.

#3 Fat Tire Ale

Taste?

It tastes like they  water collected from a parking lot full of rusting Huffy's fermented in an old water bottle by moldy Gatorade residue.

Who drinks this crap?

People who think they use to be cool who are trying to grasp on to memory that doesn't exist

#2 Firestone 805

Taste?

It taste like water collected from Refugio State beach after an oil spill

Who Drinks this crap?

Just north of Los Angeles lies a community of pretentiousness  people unified by their star bellied Sneetch hatred of anything L.A. other than the Dodgers. If this is what they drink at their frankfurter roasts and marshmallow toasts, I sure as hell didn't want to go anyway.

#1 Blue Moon

Taste?

It taste like watered down horse piss with a twist of lemon and hint of feces.

Who Drinks this crap?

People who hate beer that know nothing about beer but want to impress their beer drinking buddies.

THE END

Roll Recovery R8 a Masochistic Love Story between a man and his imaginary American Gladiator

 This is the story of how I fell in love with 

"Zap" 

my Roll Recovery R8

About 5 years ago I had my first battle with Iliotibial Band Syndrome. (a tight IT Band)  Back then there was no such thing as the Roll Recovery R8. 

 So I bought The Stick. I don't think it's a bad product but the massage was way too superficial, partly on account of my wimpy upper body strength. No matter how much a massaged my IT band, it did not get any better and now my arms and shoulders needed  massage as well

  So I got foam roller.  Meet
"Rollonya"  

Almost everyday for the next few months we rolled on the floor together.  At first I  shrieked like a little girl. I never fanciest myself to be much of masochist. Pain is not somthing I usually enjoy. But neither is injury.  I knew the pain was good for me and it became addicting for awhile Rolonya and I had a good thing going.

But overtime as I healed an got back into running again, I got lazy and our time spent on the floor together diminished. I was too tired for are daily romp.  I was no longer  injured I had a hard time convincing myself  to be proactive.

We tried to spice things up but are affair was over except for the occasional one night stand.  

I thought Maybe I needed somthing more intense?

So I bought "The Grid"  which by all means is a pretty awesome foam roller 

(other than being very hard to draw on)

BUT

It suffers from the 2 problems that all foam rollers suffer from.

1.  When I am trying to recover from a hard workout I do not have the energy to provide my own resistance

2. It requires quite a bit of room to roll around on.

The solution was simple?

I needed my own personal American Gladiator to massage me

I needed 

"ZAP"

Why Zap?

Because "Nitro" is a prick!

Owning my own American Gladiator would be pretty expensive. Plus if you have ever seen me without my shirt on It's pretty obvious I have no clue where to buy the steroids needed to feed them

So I got the next best thing

"Roll Recovery R8"

It turns out I got "ZAP"  after all.  It's pretty clear to me how they came up with design.

Photo by Stan Evans

I recently ran across the United States and I brought "Zap" with me.
 My body would be tested like never before! 

Each day I ran my ass off and had little energy left to do anything else besides drink a beer. 

Thankfully the Roll Recovery R8 is spring loaded providing almost all of its own resistance. 

It turns out all that beer drinking gave me just enough arm strength to use ZAP.

Plus I could use it anywhere.

With each passing day my love for ZAP grew.  I'm not the possessive type.

So I shared her with many friends along the way and the praise was universal.

And so were the grimaces.
(Caution video contains a foul mouthed Texan, watcher beware)


Epilogue:
ZAP and I still are together.  Although I am done with my transcontinental run I still use her everyday for at least 5 to 10 minutes.  She sits next to the couch always there for me. The Roll Recovery R8 provides a great deep tissue massage with little effort. I don't recommend throwing way your foam roller but a foam roller that isn't being used will not help you.  The R8 takes almost no effort to use and is perfect the lazy endurance athlete like myself.

Save your energy for your workout
and
use the R8 to Recover.

I love you ZAP! 
Ha Ha 
:)